Department of Transnational Studies

Contact Information

Program Overview

American Studies is an interdisciplinary program (located in the Department of Transnational Studies) that awards BA, MA, and PhD degrees. The program takes a global and hemispheric approach to the study of the Americas, examining local cultures, nations, and regions within their larger geopolitical contexts. Building on our traditional strengths in American Indian studies, critical race theory, feminism, class analysis, and community engagement, we encourage scholarly work on history, politics, visual cultures, literary and oral cultures, environmental and agricultural practices, religions, gender, sexualities, kinship systems, geography, and economics.

Reclaiming the repressed voices, histories, and cultures of marginalized peoples in the Americas has been a central mission of our program since the 1960s. UB American Studies coordinates one of the strongest American Indian studies programs in the United States.

We seek students who wish to pursue a coherent program centering on the vigorous multidisciplinary study of the Americas. We also welcome international students who seek to deepen their understanding of the cultural, historical, and natural complexity of the United States, or the Americas more generally.